Edwards Hill community takes center stage in Huntington Beach housing fight

Dozens of angry Edwards Hill neighborhood residents lashed out against potential rezoning changes coming to their neck of the woods during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Huntington Beach City Council.

There were 65 in-person speakers at the meeting, requiring Mayor Barbara Delgleize to limit each speaker’s time to two minutes. Nearly all of them railed against the results of the Oct. 11 Planning Commission meeting, during which zoning for more than 21,000 dwelling units citywide during the current Regional Housing Needs Assessment cycle was approved.

The cycle, which runs from 2021 through 2029, requires Huntington Beach to plan for 13,368 more units. The commission’s zoning for 21,363 units represents a 60% buffer, deemed necessary to ensure that development opportunities remain available through the cycle to accommodate the RHNA, especially for lower-and moderate-income households.

The contention this month largely stems from the proposed inclusion in the zoning of the Brindle/Thomas property, a 19-acre site located on Goldenwest Street between Ellis and Garfield avenues. Landscape contractor Ron Brindle and oilman and former City Council member John Thomas, now both deceased, operated oil wells on the property.

What should happen to it now? The Planning Commission voted to approve an RH30 overlay (Residential High-Density Housing with 30 units per acre) for the Ellis-Goldenwest Specific Plan. But many residents aren’t buying it.

“This proposed construction site is not a right fit,” said Huntington Surf and Sport owner Aaron Pai, who lives nearby told the City Council on Tuesday. “It is not in harmony with the current surrounding neighborhoods.”

The Ellis-Goldenwest Specific Plan currently permits three residential units per acre.

(Courtesy of city of Huntington Beach)

After hearing a few similarly exasperated residents, Councilwoman Kim Carr proposed the council hold a study session on Nov. 1, in advance of its Nov. 15 vote on certifying the housing element, to review the Planning Commission recommendations and possible alternatives.

“We wanted to put it on the agenda tonight so that we could have a back-and-forth discussion, but we couldn’t,” she said.

Many of the residents said they received no notice from the city about the proposed changes. This led Delgleize to apologize for that, from the dais.

“I personally apologize on behalf of not only myself but the city,” she said. “It’s not OK. None of us feel that it’s OK, how it was handled.”

Edwards Hill is an equestrian community located just east of Seacliff, about a mile from the beach in Surf City. It is made up of six communities: The Bluffs, Hamptons, Triple Crown Estates, Country View Estates, Central Park Estates and Heritage. All are non-gated except for the Bluffs.

The houses feature large lots; the Ellis-Goldenwest Specific Plan currently permits three residential units per acre.

“Once this overlay is in place, the residents of the community will have no recourse at the city,” said Martha Morrow, a 30-year resident of Edwards Hill, at Tuesday’s meeting. “Our fate, and the fate of every other single-family neighborhood, will be solely in the hands of the developers.”

Councilwoman Natalie Moser said that she and Carr, along with city staff, met with Edwards Hill Home Owners Assn. representatives on Monday. Moser said she wanted to hear the residents’ concerns, as well as to ensure they had the correct information.

“They expressed their concerns calmly and professionally with us,” Moser said. “We didn’t get into a back-and-forth about some of the fears they have, that were mentioned in the council meeting. In the end, I think they understood more where we’re coming from as a city and our responsibility to have a certified housing element.

“It’s California state law, and we explained to them what would happen if we don’t have one, as far as fines, fees, the potential of closing down our Planning Department. They acknowledged that they want the city of Huntington Beach to have a certified housing element ... but they also don’t want anything besides what was originally intended in their specific plan to be built near their properties.”

If the city’s housing element is not certified, Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Mike Posey warned that Huntington Beach could face a situation similar to the one that Santa Monica faced.

Santa Monica fell out of compliance with state requirements earlier this year and fell into a state of “builder’s remedy,” losing local control of projects with an affordable housing component. Developers rushed in before the California Department of Housing and Community Development approved the city’s plan last Friday.

“They now have 4,500 units in the pipeline that they cannot deny, and those 4,500 units are equal to the 4,500 units that they approved over the last 20 years,” Posey said. “They’re getting 20 years of production in one year, because the City Council was not paying attention to their housing element. It’s a travesty.”

Councilman Dan Kalmick made the distinction between the Edwards Hill property being rezoned entirely, versus overlaid.

“Nothing becomes nonconforming, and it’s still private property,” he said. “We’re adding property rights to people, at this point ... Zoning is not immutable. Beach Boulevard has been zoned for high-density development for many years now, and nothing’s been built in many years.

“Huntington Beach has a target on its back because of all the housing lawsuits. If we get out of compliance, we’re going to be first on that list for a referral from HCD to the Attorney General’s office. No doubt about it. We’ve definitely pissed off the state of California.”

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